Tuesday, January 3, 2017

"The Ancient Paths" - A Lifestyle Resolution

"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."

~ Jeremiah 6:16

If there was a verse to have much meaning today in our struggle for a meaningful and more abundant life, I would choose Jeremiah 6:16 as my personal and divine inspiration (a life motto-- so to speak). The stress, the hustle and bustle of it all, the flashing lights, the blinking screens, the ringers, the buzzers, the electronic notifications, the obnoxious advertisements and so forth has become overwhelming. Although much is a blessing (such as the ability to create this blog on a computer!), much of today's modern lifestyle is robbing us of the rest, peace and tranquility needed for our yearning, sensitive souls.

The more "convenient" things become, the more "complicated". We can be located in less than a minute by anyone who desires to find us. We can be interrupted in seconds from important family moments and milestones. Right when you are about to delve into the Word, the phone rings. Prosperity has come with a great price.

When I first read the verse in Jeremiah, my heart was overflowing with joy! I was thirsting and now I was quenched... This is the path I had been desiring, the one laid before me by my Lord. It is "the old path". Some translations call it the "ancient path" which I think is beautiful.

The "old path" can mean many things to many people. For me, it is about looking to the "slower" ways of the past while still embracing some of the modern blessings AND always with the Good Book as our guide.

I want my husband to feel safe and satisfied with me, to have the time and attention to nourish our marriage.

I want my family to feel loved, secure and settled in the sanctuary I create daily called "home". Meals will be served around the table with thanks to the Almighty before that first bite. There will be no television blaring in the background when we break bread together in His Name.

I am not interested in the "new age" thinking but in the "old time religion", where man was concerned about his actions and honor. Where he was conscience of being a stumbling block to the weaker brethren and where the grace of God wasn't used as an excuse to sin.

I don't want to be known as the woman who always has a "blue tooth" glued to her ear, but a woman who has the time to "lend you an ear".

I don't want to live a life fighting traffic on the road. I want to live a life which creates and cultivates in the home. Where freshly baked muffins are sitting on the counter in a tidy kitchen. Where inspiring music is filling the halls of the house. Where candles are burning a sweet and natural scent while giving the rooms a gentle glow.

I want to serve my loved ones simple but freshly prepared meals that have been chopped, measured and stirred by my own hands which are free from the preservatives and additives from a man-made laboratory.

I do not want to use the chemical created body products that the stores are selling but want to spend a few moments making my own with natural, nourishing and real ingredients.

I don't mind making up my own cleaning products because I want to see rows of handcrafted jars instead of the artificial plastic bottles filled with warnings that the stores sell.

I want to learn about the delicate art of healing with herbs instead of depending on the harsh, pharmaceutical medicines with all those unsavory side affects.

I love to spend the seasons filling the pantry shelves like the pioneering women before us.

I enjoy hanging my clothes out to dry and watching the feminine clothing swirl in the breeze. I like to have lace, crocheted edging or floral embroidery on my skirts and shirts as a romantic ode to womanhood.

I don't necessarily want newer, better, brighter, and bolder. I am craving old fashioned, softer, gentler, faded but still beautiful.

Emphasis on integrity, hard working and not necessarily on quick and rich.

To this person, it is nourishing and fulfilling and most of all, it is a real life. It need not be "liked" on social media to be loved.

This is just some of what the "old paths" mean to me. What does it mean to you?

Am I creating a utopia? No, it can never be with our fallen natures. That will never exist here on this sin-filled earth. What I am hoping to do is breathe a bit of heaven into our own little home. While some are contemplating New Year's resolutions, I am contemplating a purposeful lifestyle, an ancient and old, but tried and true path...

48 comments:

Lovely post! My husband and I of 37 years live in a log cabin in the woods with no WIFI-We heat with wood only and have a rather large extensive garden and 13 chickens! I can and freeze and am pondering on starting a kitchen Herb garden this spring. Exciting times!

Jess this is one of the most beautiful things I've read in a while. There are so many traditional ways I favor from mending clothes to pulling a carrot right from the earth as a snack, but also holding a door for an elder to looking people in the eyes. Everything you mentioned is dear to my heart. Thank you.

Dear JES- such wonderful words that speak to my heart. Though I now live in the city, the simple country life beckons me everyday. I yearn for the time I did live in the country and had a simple life where my time was spent reading the Good Book without interruption and doing simple things like baking, laundry, canning and most important raising my dear children. I crave the "ancient path" where things are plain and basic, where my heart can find a place to rest. Thank-you for the inspiration.

I think this is the way we were meant to live, and happily, my husband thinks so, too. We've nearly always been slightly removed from mainstream ways. No tv and my not working outside the home along with other convictions puts us in a rather "peculiar" category. And we are thankful to be able to live a set-apart lifestyle.

My darling,you're not creating an utopia, believe me, precious friend of mine, we're living in your same way, and I'm writing these words with so much joy, love and gratitude ... we're happy for the love we share, especially when we all are in our nest, sitting around our table and giving thanks for what we have ... we feel so blessed !

Hope your week is off to a good start,I'm sending blessings on the New Year just begun

Love this post! So true how new technology has taken us away from our families. It was supposed to make our lives easier but instead as made it harder in many ways. I love for my house to be even more old time than it is now!

Old Paths to me means learning to not get caught up in the how's but in the whys. I am a chronic illness that make many of the average how's impossible or very debilitating. I deeply wish to recapture the younger me's vision of homemaking while being gracious with myself about the exact method or appearance of the end results. God brings good out of bad. Where I once thought my daughters would want nothing to do with mothering and homemaking, they now are stepping up to help and are blossoming out into things such as herbs, knitting and other helpful arts. (Colleen G from Mi)

Thank you for the reminder. For me, the old paths are much the same as yours but also seeking within the Pages of the Word and through the Holy Spirit what Words I can live out on a daily basis. Contentment. Joy. Blessing. Encourage. Those words...those character qualities to be lived out in my days. And to be like Jesus through them.

I just discovered this blog through Lady Lydia. I saw the title of this post and was intrigued. I'm so glad I clicked on the link, I am enjoying your many posts. I have a lot of reading to do so I can catch up on all the posts!

This was beautiful Jes! My husband and I have always felt we were in the wrong time period. This verse displays exactly what we mean by that. Reading the bible last year has brought me an understanding of why. Thanks for sharing this post!

Very inspiring!! I hope to get back to the basics of life (much like you describe in this post) & enjoy my homemaking life this year (last year was crazy hectic). Thank you for reminding me (in such a beautiful well spoken way) there is hope!! :)

I have your reading list saved on Amazon and I am going through it pretty regularly. I bought Stepping Heavenward because you and Mrs. White at Legacy of Home recommended it. I am so grateful for it, and for at least 3 or 4 other books I've read due to your quotes or your reading list recommendation.

If you were in the phase of life where there was limited time because of the little ones-- what in the way of homemaking or cultivation of a beautiful home, would you pick? Would you honor me with your advice on that? Right now, I am doing devotionals with the children in the mornings, personal quiet time of course before the kids wake up, cooking dinners from scratch (but not able to bake bread or make my own yogurt, so not truly from scratch, but not boxed lasagna), and reading the children one or two fiction books per day. I also read Jane Austen or Elisabeth Elliot when I am putting my littlest one to bed. It doesn't seem like I have any time for anything else. I want to learn to sew, make my own cleansers, keep my house clean (I do keep it pretty tidy), de-clutter, and keep a garden, and of course add to my baking and cooking skills. But I just cannot find the time. Of the arts of homemaking, which would you pick if you had just one or two ? What is most important to cultivate relatively early in your homemaking career (I am 32 with three children ages 1, 3 and 5), or in creating a beautiful home for your children and husband?

Hi Jennifer,Sorry for the delay.. We have out of town guests here that are leaving tomorrow and my computer just got out of the shop! :) I must be honest with you, maintaining a clean house, cooking all my meals, cleaning up after them and being a "present" wife and mother would be all I had time for in the years of having small children. Working on keeping a "tight ship" so to speak and an organized home will help to cultivate a habit of order for your household (your children needing to participate and help along) is what I would spend all my efforts on at this point. I wouldn't want to add anything that I myself wasn't prepared to take on during the stage you are in. However, if I did have extra snippets of time, I would invest efforts in nutrition and herbs. As you have a growing family, these are skills that will help to maintain health and natural healing methods which will bless your children and pave their future at the same time (they will be equipped with these skills as they see you implement them). With the growing developments of food allergies, disorders, and obesity, providing a healthy home would be important to me. I hope this helps!

The herb books by Rosemary Gladstar are wonderful and full of useful information that have blessed my household (I have many links to her books on my website).

I also recommend (though dated and for a beginner) Healthy Foods by Leanne Ely which is focused on teaching the family (or Eating Right!: A Realistic Approach to a Healthy Lifestyle by Emilie Barnes and Sue Gregg which is Christian based). Both books are "balanced" in my opinion and doesn't follow a specific FAD diet but simply a "real" food diet.

Note: These books were written awhile back when soy was considered the wonder food. I do not condone the eating of soy which research has now shown to have a horrific effect on the body (except for the fermented soy in soy sauce) and is 99% sure to be a GMO crop.

I will be sharing a unit study on nutrition in the next month or so as well.

I hope this helps and sorry if I didn't give the kind of answer you were looking for. I just don't feel the need to burden you in the early family stages. Between child training, meals, cleaning, etc., you are doing a wonderful work that takes much energy at this point!

JES, this was beautifully thought out and expressed, and so timely for this "lifestyle resolution" post to coincide with the beginning of a new year. Thank you for identifying with love the most important resolutions we can have in our lives. May I also include that I have begun the new year with daily smoothies, using your excellent previous post on the subject as my template? The smoothie has quickly become my favorite meal, and the suggestions you offer make it not only very delicious, but nutrient-dense. Thank you for taking such care in everything you post; I love to see each new one! Nancy D.

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Welcome! A little introduction… I am an old-fashioned, Bible-believing, wife to my "one and only" for 20 years, homeschooling mother, who embraces her role as "keeper at home". We live on a 25-acre prairie farm.For fun… my three main earthly weaknesses (in no particular order) are coffee, dark chocolate and hardcover books. What about you? My hope is that this blog will inspire you in the arts of homemaking, homeschooling and homesteading. Visit here for 10 random facts about me... Have a beautiful day! ~ JES

"The woman who makes a sweet, beautiful home, filling it with love and prayer and purity, is doing something better than anything else her hands could find to do beneath the skies. A true mother is one of the holiest secrets of home happiness. God sends many beautiful things to this world, many noble gifts; but no blessing is richer than that which He bestows in a mother who has learned love's lessons well, and has realized something of the meaning of her sacred calling."

"She (the godly wife and mother) is a mighty warrior queen who fights righteous battles at her husband's side and reigns with him over the home and domain God has given them as they work together for Christ's eternal Kingdom and glory."

"There is nothing in the daily routine of the family life that is unimportant. Indeed, it is ofttimes the things we think of as without influence that will be found to have made the deepest impression on the tender lives of the household." ~ Excerpt from The Family

“And there are my children! My darling, precious children! For their sakes I am continually constrained to seek after an amended, a sanctified life; what I want them to become I must become myself."

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